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What Conference Attendees are SayingDarren's e-mails are all printed with permission: Darren, Thank you once again for being a presenter and keynote speaker at our 2003 District 11 Spring Conference. Your presence will inspire many in the district to pursue their dreams. By sharing your story and showing us the power of humor, you demonstrate the impact of Toastmasters International. I hope that other Districts will take advantage of the opportunity to have you at their conferences. You are a great ambassador for Toastmasters International!
Sam Bristol
Hi Darren, The comedy night was fun! Thank you for your suggestion to have it. It helped greatly with expenses and I've had several requests to repeat it as an annual event. Without your name to pull in an audience I don't know that we will have the tremendous response that we experienced this time, but it's worth a try. Your visit was the first of its kind for our district. I feel as if we did not do enough to thank you.
Thanks again.
Hi Darren, I have been attending workshops at District conferences for 22 years and I believe that this is the best and most informative workshop I have attended during that time.
Best regards,
That was the best training we've seen in this building in at least 5 yrs! His message was perfect and his delivery even better! I can't believe I'm saying this, 'I didn't want the training to end!'"
"I can't listen to anyone for 90 minutes, when you spoke it felt like 5."
Dear Darren,
Thanks again, You guys are doing a terrific job with the conference! I went to see Darren LaCroix while I was in San Antonio, and he's absolutely awesome! It's unbelievable to me that we could get a world champion like that here! Also, I looked at the agenda, and really like the creative way it's being handled. I can't wait for the conference!!… Anyway, keep up the good work. Your team has definitely "chosen excellence!"
See you soon.
Darren, How 'bout this bit of onomatopeia when citing the "Rocky" theme - "Monolith of Machismo" or "Monolith of Manliness"?
Your kindred spirit in funny word selection, Darren LaCroix won the 2001 Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking against the strongest field of speaker ever presented at this yearly event. To best the other eight contestants, you had to be a World Class Presenter. Darren LaCroix was, and is, a World Class Presenter. Other Professional Speakers can only hope to achieve at the level Darren has already reached. Organizations who hire speakers had better book Darren now while they can still afford him. Toastmasters: Bringing Out the Best In People!
William L. "Bill" May, Jr., DTM, Lieutenant Governor Education & Training Darren, I'm a better speaker and writer because of STAGE TIME! STAGE TIME! STAGE TIME! I've reached the point where I can focus on my audience rather than 'my next line' or incorporating a 'staged' gesture. Mentally, I've been toughened up and I'm more creative than ever. No matter what the outcome, I can see and feel my evolution, and know that I'll be ready to go for it all next spring. Thanks again for all of your work and wisdom. David is right - you are an excellent teacher. Mike Davis Dear Darren: On behalf of Goldcoast Toastmasters, and the members and guests who attended your presentation at our Club on November 21, 2002, thank you for the best educational session that any of us have ever experienced in Toastmasters. You were outstanding. We loved seeing your winning speech, and then having you take us through the design and implementation process for building that speech. Your “From Chump to Champ” was an inspiration to all of us. Undoubtedly, you have raised the bar of expectations and possibilities for our members. You are welcome back at our club anytime, and we hope to see you making more presentations in Florida. We wish you much continued success in your career as a speaker and entertainer. You certainly created a group of fans on Singer Island.
Kindest Personal Regards, Dear David(Brooks) and Darren, It's been nearly 2 months since the Gulf Toastmasters Annual Convention in Muscat, Oman, and the Jordan Toastmasters believe that it's never too late to say Thank You. Thank you for your speeches on those 2 days. They were uplifting and very informative. Your presence at the convention made us Jordan Toastmasters appreciate more what public speaking is all about especially to new clubs like ours in our region. We also enjoyed your company during the dinner, and your humor and positive and friendly nature were appreciated and still remembered… Thank you again from the Toastmasters in Jordan.
Sincerely,
Darren, I hate to admit this but I have never really given my all to most things that I have done - laziness I guess - and was quite content to do better than average or just plain average most times even when I knew I could better. After listening to you, I began to think of all the things that I could do so much better if I was willing to work hard at whatever it is I am trying to achieve.
Thank you for inspiring me.
Darren, Before I get down to business, and in the spirit of toastmasters, some feedback on your presentation. Your over-the-top energy level put a static charge in the air and even those who had spent the night in the casino were riveted to the stage, sitting up straight, and totally engaged. Seeing the video of your first night on stage in contrast to Sunday morning made it graphically clear that the best weren't born that way, and that gave undeniable credibility to your message of "stage time, stage time; get comfortable with your self on stage so you can be yourself on stage. You faced a significant technical challenge when the computer hung in the middle of a video that was crucial to your message. You responded seamlessly and delivered the rest of the video as a live speech. That was remarkable...
Regards,
Matthew Clulow I hope you have a good time visiting cities outside Taipei. TMs there told me that they enjoyed your visit so much and wanted me to express their gratitude to you. Allow me to bow three bows to you for your accepting my invitation to come to Taiwan to help us to appreciate our lives more than ever. And it has already been proved that my decision to invite you to come Taiwan is definitely a right thing has been done! I will put in my writing that the most correct thing I have done in my life is having invited you to come to Taiwan. Thank you so much. This week till next Friday, I have been busy in assisting the funeral services of my thesis advisor professor by making CD and memorial articles to be distributed at the funeral on April 12. I appreciate you when I first communicated with you on the loss of my beloved professor at Grand hotel Taipei on March 23, I saw your eyes turned into red. Thank you so much for your love and concern about people around you. I need to stop here as I need to go out quite early tomorrow. Thank you so much again. Bow three bows to you. Bing Bing
Darren, I'm the woman who has seen you speak four times in less than one year (and who shared door prize duty with you at the Tall Tales contest). I have enjoyed hearing you each time, but this time your advice really struck home. "Get as much stage time as possible" is just what the ham in me wants to hear. I will never again turn down a Table Topic, Speech, Evaluation, outside speaking opportunity. The more I get up before audiences, the easier it seems to become . . . and the more fun! Thanks again. I look forward to seeing you again in the future, but it probably won't be five times in one year!
Deb Grehn Darren, I enjoyed and learned a lot from your presentations in Columbus this past weekend. It was an outside chance that I took to attend my first divisional meeting after nearly 30 years in Toastmasters, but it was certainly worthwhile. I figured if the TM world champion of public speaking was coming all the way to GREATER Nebraska from Massachusetts, it should be worth my while to drive the 80 miles from Omaha to Columbus to hear him. It certainly was! In addition to being an entertaining stand-up comedian, I think you are a really good public speaking coach, and that means a whole lot more according to my reckoning. I look forward to receiving your newsletter for which I signed up on your clipboard at the site. Best wishes for continued success in your comedy career. Bob P.S. I felt so good about the whole program in Columbus, I am planning to write a summary of it for submission to the Toastmaster magazine. I hope they publish it.
Robert S. Runyon, Library Dean Emeritus Darren, Looks like I'll be high-tailing it down to San Antonio. I have one vacation day left to attend Friday and Saturday. Yea! Today, I was asked to give the opening motivational speech for Districts 50's TLI (Toastmaster Leadership Institute) for this coming Saturday morning. My first thought was, "I don't have time to prepare. Why did they wait so late to ask me?" Before those thoughts turned into words, I heard a familiar voice in my head saying, "Stage Time, Stage Time, Stage Time." Then some scary sounds came out of my mouth that sounded like, "Yes, I'll be glad to do the opening speech." EEKS! On your coaching CD, you mentioned "self coaching." What is "self coaching?" Is it like self-hypnosis? Hope you have had an exceptional week. Deborah Biriny
Darren, You made the afternoon a marvelous adventure. Thank you very much. We greatly appreciate your efforts, time, and talent. Please forgive us for keeping you so long. Wishing you confident communications and confirming leadership,
Deb and Peter Kulkkula Darren, I would like to express my deepest appreciation for you taking the time to visit our club, (short pause) but I can't (added humor). Just kidding! You were inspirational! People who were not even at the meeting stop me in the hall to talk about it. They over heard members talking and were impressed by what they heard. Two of our members told me that they needed this to get them motivated again. One of our members wanted to skip speaking on Thursday but I mentioned "Stage Time" to her, now she will speak. We are looking into purchasing a club tape recorder for our members to use. I think we will be a much stronger club after this. We meet on Thursday's at 11:30AM. If you are still in town feel free to stop by. Send a mailing address for me to mail your CD of the meeting to. I might just wait until after the speech contest to give a copy to the other clubs. Give Brian the edge!
Thank you again, Darren, I was at the District 11 conference and did not get a chance to talk with you. I got to only listen to the morning speech of yours. It was inspiring to me because you showed how you were when you first started out in 1992. I could identify and could possibly do that well if I tried that. Then you told us it just takes desire and getting the experience and getting as much information from other successful people in comedy and public speaking and then we could do it too. I wept a little because basically you said, "You can do it, whatever it is." Wow. That was just great. Thanks. Mike Kinsinger DTM |
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